02:33 - VIGJust sayin' I remember nikarg's Sodom review on the front page, that album was like 30 years old

02:27 - ScreamingSteelUSTechnically, Che's Manunkind review was too old to be featured on the front page. That was a special exception; usually, we prefer to keep our reviews within three-to-four months, with six months as an absolute cutoff.

02:14 - VIG@Radu Of course! I don't think it's too old to be featured on the front page. Look at Che's Manunkind review

00:09 - RaduPPublished a review for an album that's a bit too old to be featured on the front page, but you guys will read it, right? [link]

Original post

Was hanging out with a new friend of mine from my previous year in high school. We're both friends with somebody else who, like me, listens to metal (especially the heavy stuff). I know he has shown the friend who I was hanging out with his 'idea' of what metal should be - pure harsh vocals and aggression, deeper the better. The friend who I was hanging out with seemed entirely turned off by what he was shown because it was simply what he was shown to be 'metal' in all shapes and forms, wrongly convinced by a bad impression. This friend only listens to music you would hear on the radio, which 99/100 times is utter trash.

When we were hanging out yesterday, I showed him some of my library which has everything from pure cleans and slow tempo to extreme everything. We didnt have much time, so I showed him some Protest The Hero because they're not particularly hard to listen to in terms of intensity. After a few songs such as "C'est La Vie", "Hair Trigger", and "Spoils" he seemed to me as if his mind was just opened. He described that unlike what he is used to, in which a song essentially builds up to a peak and then descends, that the music he was listening to was up and down repeatedly, how the lyrics were completely foreign (topic wise) - and how he liked it.

It was an interesting thing for me to witness, because he had acted disgusted before when he knew I was listening to metal on my iPod, or with what the other guy was listening to. It appears to me like I completely changed his views on music with only a couple of well chosen songs. I know that metal can sometimes take time to get into, usually requiring the lighter side to draw somebody in and then building it into an acquired taste by getting progressively heavier over time.

I don't think open-mindedness within music has anything to do what genre of music you're into, or indeed, how many of genres of music you're into. Being open-minded musically means you can give every form of music a fair chance, and not just dismiss it out of a personal bias due to non-musical reasons. (which a lot of people do, metal fans included.) Having the mindset to try listening to new things, even though you may not always like what you hear, is what makes you open minded. Metal fans can be some of the most closed-minded people around, so liking metal certainly doesn't automatically equate to open-mindedness.

Speaking from a personal standpoint, I don't think it was being open-minded that made me like metal, nor do I think I became more open-minded as a result of listening to metal. I had/have an open-mind, full stop. I also don't think I was influenced socially to be open-minded, as if I'd taken influence from those around me growing up, I'd have ended up very narrow-minded, both in a musical, and in a non-musical sense.